One week to go and here are all the 2025 Giro d’Italia stage profiles together on one page. From here to the end of May you’ll also find them at inrng.com/giro, along with a technical guide to the race rules and regulations… once they’ve been shared by the organisers.
Route summary
Last year’s route was explicitly eased twice over to tempt Tadej Pogačar: reduced vertical gain of 43,000m and shortened stages averaging 172km per day (excluding TTs and the Rome stage), down from the 50,000m or more and 190km days.
This year’s climbing jumps back up towards the norms but the average distance only goes to back up to 179km so its as mountainous as ever, or even than ever on a per kilometre basis and has few time trial kilometres.
This year’s route has not been created for Wout van Aert – he is not going to win overall – but the opening week is perfect with the hilly sprints and the time trial too, stage wins and the maglia rosa await although Mads Pedersen and others will want to pick up where they left off too.
The curiosity of the course is the lack of summit finishes, there are just two and neither Stages 7+16 is big either. Will riders make long range moves before, or sit tight? Precedent in recent years says the preference is to wait for as long as possible and hope others fall away but the answer partly depends on the rider…
There are time bonuses available on all the stages except the time trials:
- 10-6-4 seconds for the first three riders respectively on each stage
- 6-4-2 seconds at “Red Bull” intermediate sprint, look for the logo in a green circle on the stage profiles
Stage 1 – Friday 9 May
Stage 1 starts on the coast to project images of beach resorts before heading inland and it’s mountainous, the mountains point at Gracen is a long climb and sufficient to eject some sprinters before crossing to the Qafa Koxhalites, qafa is the local word for a mountain pass. Then come laps in Tirana with more climbs.
Stage 2 – Saturday 10 May
A time trial in downtown Tirana, the capital city. It’s big bulevardi as they say in Albanian and the climb mid-stage is a bigger boulevard still.
Stage 3 – Sunday 11 May
It’s an election day in Albania. This passes around Mount Çika, the highest peak and takes in the Llogara pass. The stage sets the scene for the Giro’s course design with big climbs often an hour from the finish.
Stage 4 – Tuesday 13 May
After the ferry to Bari, a day for the sprinters to Lecce in the heel of Italy.
Stage 5 – Wednesday 14 May
Matera is back. This featured more recently in 2020 when Arnaud Démare supplied one of his best wins in the uphill sprint. The difference this time is the sapping climb to Montescaglioso, a much hillier approach.
Stage 6 – Thursday 15 May
A start in Potenza, the town that’s so hilly they use giant escalators as public transport and it’s uphill via the unmarked climb of the Valico di Monte Romito. It could be enough to launch a breakaway but the course flattens as the race returns to Napoli for the fourth year in a row.
Stage 7 – Friday 16 May
Plenty of familiar roads with a start in Castel di Sangro to climb to Roccaraso and a day in the Apennines with 3,800m of vertical gain. Tagliacozzo says the finish. but this is towards Marsia on the slopes of Monte Bove above the town. Squint at the profile above and you can see the final 3.6km are steep, it’s a real summit finish… one of only two.
Stage 8 – Saturday 17 May
3,500m of vertical gain so almost as much climbing as the previous day but this time scattered throughout the day with unmarked climbs and surprises, for example the last 4th category climb is a brute of a ramp. Castelraimondo is a regular haunt for Tirreno-Adriatico and the finish here uses plenty of twisty backroads.
Stage 9 – Sunday 18 May
The gravel stage with sterrato from the Strade Bianche and some shared sections with Monteaperti and Pinzuto in the finish (but not le Tolfe) before climbing into Siena and a finish on the Piazza del Campo. As ever this a crucial stage because of the fear something can go wrong.
Stage 10 – Tuesday 20 May
This comes after a rest day. There are the hills on the horizon but they stay there as this sticks to the flat for a 28km time trial in Tuscany. With this stage done that’s it for the time trials. 2025 will see the fewest amount of time trials across all grand tours for 50 years, or in modern day course design.
Stage 11 – Wednesday 21 May
Away from the beaches and into the Garfagnana to Alpe San Pellegrino which despite the name is the highest village in the Appenines, not the Alps. Either way it’s a brute of a climb with 14km at 8.7% average and the upper part with long ramps at 12-13%. The rest of the stage is hilly but not as steep and the 12% section for the final climb, perhaps in the inside of a hairpin bend?
Stage 12 – Thursday 22 May
A day for the sprinters and not just on the plains of the river Po but right on its banks.
Stage 13 – Friday 23 May
A ride into the Veneto and the highlight if the finish is in Vicenza, the graphics above omit to mention it is on the Monte Berico climb, and tackled twice here. Philippe Gilbert won ahead of Alberto Contador here in 2015, it’s that kind of finish.
Stage 14 – Saturday 24 May
Sprinters’ day with a visit to Slovenia. If you want to troll an Italian call this the “wine stage” because of the Slovenian vineyards around Nova Gorica. But the climb at Saver is sharper than it looks and so this isn’t a Giro for the dragster sprinters.
Stage 15 – Sunday 25 May
Monte Grappa and the Asiago plateau. The key word here is “plateau” because there’s a 28km section across the top to the finish for the longest stage in the race. It’s very similar to the 2017 stage won by Thibaut Pinot where Monte Grappa featured but the finish saw a frantic chase across the plateau where Nairo Quintana extended his overall lead by a few seconds over Tom Dumoulin the day before the final time trial.
Stage 16 – Tuesday 27 May
A big day in the Alps yet without any big climbs, 4,900m of climbing but without little time spend above 1,000m altitude. The San Valentino pass is just long at 17km and most of the time a steady road up to the pastures high above Lake Garda.
Stage 17 – Wednesday 28 May
The Mortirolo stage. First comes the Tonale, a big transport artery and a steady climb. Next the Mortirolo is climbed the “easy” side from Monno but this time there’s a turning for the “direttissima”, a section of road that goes straight up rather than swaying around hairpins and this narrow road is consequently steeper.
After the hectic descent it’s the long valley road up to Bormio but the route turns off this to climb to Le Motte, an old fort and as you might imagine this sits high above the valley, it’s a proper climb for a final sort-out.
Stage 18 – Thursday 29 May
One for the sprinters? Yes but by now a tired peloton might have more of a struggle, especially as desperate teams launch moves to try and salvage a result.
Stage 19 – Friday 30 May
The tappone with 4,950m of vertical gain, the most in this year’s edition. Alas last time the Giro visited the Aosta valley things turned to farce. In 2023 the peloton was worried about the state of the road on a climb in Switzerland later in the stage and the compromise was to skip the first climb in Italy… while still tackling the Swiss one. The story is longer but the missed start infuriated local politicians, minutes from council meetings recorded this. But the Giro is back, presumably a sweetened deal on the hosting fees.
We get a tour of the region with the second-only ever ascent of the very tough Tzecore, the sort of climb you can ride up and think you’re on a bad day but it’s actually just the relentless pitch. Then two more steady climbs in Saint-Pantaléon and Joux familiar to riders who’ve done the Giro… Ciclistico della Valle d’Aosta, the U23 stage race held every summer, these are regular roads. Once again the climbing eases before the finish with ride over to Champoluc.
Stage 20 – Saturday 31 May
The Finestre to settle things. A ride out of the Aosta valley first and then across the Canavese foothills where the late Gianni Savio would house his latest imports. The Colle del Lys looks small but it’s a proper Alpine climb even if there’s time to recover for the Finestre.
The Finestre climb (more details here) is a 21st century addition to the Giro, first used in 2005 after it was partially paved. The gravel gets the headlines but it’s road-bike friendly, don’t expect lengthy “gravel tech” articles on the morning of the stage. The Finestre is almost 19km long and averages over 9% making it an hour long ascension and one of the toughest in the Alps all around. It’s packed with hairpins, 30 in a 3km stretch which matters for the concertina effect, being just a few places back can cause whiplash and cost energy, just ask Simon Yates. Once over the top the descent is paved and the route picks up the main highway to Sestriere.
Stage 21 – Sunday 1 June
A fixture now, the stage to the coast and back via the Eur business district before laps around the city of Rome
The unmissable stages
Anything can happen during the Giro but there are some stages that matter more than others, some suggestions for the must-watch days:
- Stage 3: see what Albania looks like on a Sunday
- Stage 7: one of only two summit finishes, will tell us plenty
- Stage 9: the gravel day on the strade bianche
- Stage 16: up and down all day in the Alps
- Stage 17: the Mortirolo but far from the finish
- Stage 19: the tappone, the biggest mountain stage
- Stage 20: the day after the biggest day with the Colle delle Finestre
Why doesn’t stage 20 count as a summit finish? Is the climb not steep enough? I see it categorized as 3rd category climb on the profile.
Because it’s flat across to the finish, the profile doesn’t quite show it but it’s a main road, gentle gradient most of the way.
I think the Giro will always be closer to my heart than any other stage races, mostly because of the nostalgia of it having been the first cycling spectacle that pulled me in many years ago. Does anyone else remember the catchy jingle that they started every stage of the ’96 race with: “la bici l’o voluta io/adesso pedala”?
They used to have an official song every year but it’s become unloved and then seems to have been dropped. In 2013 the song was “Mezza estate” (midsummer) and all about sunshine and warm weather only it seemed to rain every day at the race (most days) and it was cruel to play over the sound system at the start each day with a downpour.
Enjoyed reading this comment and agree.
Hope for some surprises along the way, feels like you never quite know what you get with the Giro.
Read Stage 20 could be changed because of snow, that would be a bad surprise.
You know the Giro is coming soon because there are news articles “revealing” the Alps have had snow over the winter 😉
The threat for the Giro is rarely the lingering snow which has four weeks to melt and be cleared by workers, and more the prospect of a cold front arriving in the Alps at the same time as the race bringing snow/sleet on the day. Hopefully the Finestre is ok.
Looks like a fun course design. As to be expected with grand tours, there will inevitably be some anonymous stages with a few Italian pro conti guys dangling off the front all day, but the course design seems well suited to keep the competition close well into the last week. I wouldn’t mind another uphill finish or two, especially earlier in the race, but there is a lot of potential for drama on the long run-ins. Most importantly, no Pogi or Ving, so it’s unlikely to be done and dusted with a week to go. If the weather is ok in the last week, could be an epic edition.
The now chronical Giro-route disease… feeble 2nd week. Barring that, good ideas, although a broader variety of themes would have been welcome.
Re: st. 17, any news on the “direttissima” / Recta Contador? I think that the original published route didn’t have it in, as it needed some road works, so general opinion was it was going to be confirmed as soon as the latter also were… which apparently are being carried out *but* the course on the official website still doesn’t have the “Recta Contador” (last time I checked a few days ago). Is the variant now included in the Garibaldi, which is apparently late, too, when compared to previous years’ publishing dates?
RCS is doing terrible communication-wise this year. Dunno what it happened, external issues maybe, but even managing that sort of things can be done better or worse, and they’ve provided more than one deception, especially when granting in-time info is concerned, not least to build up some proper hype.
Just the local newspaper chronicling the works for this, it seems to be part of of the climb or that’s the plan. But the Garibali which has come out today hasn’t mentioned it; but it doesn’t have to as it’s a major turn etc.
Liking the INEOS line-up, although this year they looked short on luck, not on valour.